Local Heroes

As we know, it is an article of faith among conservatives that the closer a government is to the people, then the better form of government it is. (Among its other applications, that is the entire theory behind our weekly feature, This Week In The Laboratories Of Democracy.) They're all over praising local sheriffs who have promised not to enforce federal gun laws and so forth. So one would expect them to cheer the latest developments in Nebraska as regards our old friend, the Keystone XL pipeline, where local landowners have turned to their local governments to keep their land free of foreign-born death funnels.

Landowners and other opponents of the pipeline, which could carry 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canadian tar sands to refineries on the Texas Gulf coast, are asking county commissions along the route to pass resolutions formally opposing the project to show the federal government there is local opposition. They're also pushing for local zoning regulations - no matter how small - that could make it harder for the project to proceed. "If enough counties have regulations - real, meaningful regulations to protect the groundwater - then maybe it hits a point where it's not very economical to run this thing through Nebraska," said Brian Bedient, a farmer in eastern Nebraska, the state where the opposition effort is based.

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The triumph of small government, right? Who's with me? I said, who's with me?

In August, Nebraska opponents plan to erect two barns with solar panels and wind turbines directly in the pipeline's path - a move designed to force developer TransCanada to run the pipeline around them or invoke eminent domain power to destroy them. Organizers have raised $10,000 of the $65,000 needed to build the structures.

I expect to see Eric Cantor lying down in front of a bulldozer any day now.